The British Plastics Federation has condemned the report presented by the Government’s Environmental Audit Committee, after the committee recommended implementation of a ‘Deposit Return Scheme’, in its last sitting of 2017.

The BPF has stated it is against legislation for refundable drinks bottles, focusing on ‘consumer education’ as a way to ensure a closed loop cycle for PET bottles. It has cited the unreliability of the bottles statistics included in the committee's report for its stance against the uptake of a bottle return scheme.

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The Federation said: “We are pleased to see the [Environmental Audit Committee] recognised that a government and industry-led initiative for on-the-go consumption of food and drinks may be necessary. However, we feel the EAC has failed to recognise the need to focus on single serve containers which are most associated with on-the-go consumption and the most difficult to recover with the current on-street recycling provision.

“We are also disappointed to see potentially misleading information contained in the report that overstates the potential gain from a DRS by not including the current recycling level for beverage containers in the UK. This figure was provided by a range of stakeholders both orally and in written submissions and is significantly higher than those stated in the report. The current recycling rate for consumer plastics drink bottles is 74 per cent, which is not mentioned (Source: Valpak http://bit.ly/2CRapG3).

“In addition, the report makes misleading statements about the number of bottles that would fall inside the recommended deposit scheme. It also misstates the number of bottles used for different types of beverages, including water.

“Whilst we welcome the EAC’s recommendations on reform to the producer responsibility obligations we would like to see a recognition of the role this could play in supporting councils to provide improved on-street infrastructure for recycling and litter prevention. This would be a convenient way for consumers to recycle all on-the-go items, as opposed to visiting a specific redemption points to recycle certain items (DRS).

“Focusing on narrow interventions that target single items in our waste stream will not enable comprehensive recycling of all materials or make significant differences in the volume of litter. PET beverage containers account for only 20 per cent of beverage related litter and only two per cent of all litter on our streets.”